Stra, altitude 5 m/16 feet above sea level; train station at Padua, 8 km/5 miles to the west.
The villa was built between 1617 and 1635 on behalf of the Venetian noble family Foscarini, based on a design of Vincenzo Scamozzi; it is located in Stra, along the Riviera del Brenta, a few hundred meters away from the more famous Villa Pisani.
Here lived Marco Foscarini, one of the last Doges of the Serenissima Repubblica [the Most Serene Republic − the self applied nickname for Venice. RB] (1762-1763), scholar and author of a history of Venetian literature, as well as a passionate collector of coral.
From the Foscarini family, the villa passed successively to the Negrelli and Rossi families, and is therefore known also as Villa Foscarini-Rossi. It now houses a museum of footwear and is available for weddings and other ceremonies.
For the cyclist the villa is reachable along the bike route of the Brenta. Coming from Padua along the Piovego canal, at the end of the towpath, get back on the paved road, turn left over a bridge and then turn right, following along the canal, and one inevitably comes to the front of the villa.